


in which Will Byers's Really, Really, Really Done with everyone's drama

by janie_tangerine



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Good Parent Joyce Byers, Good Sibling Jonathan Byers, Idiots in Love, M/M, Matchmaking, Multi, Post-Canon, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, Tumblr Prompt, Will Byers Can't Catch a Break, oblivious people, poor will tbh, they're less good at judging their own love life tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 07:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13243509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janie_tangerine/pseuds/janie_tangerine
Summary: or: in which Will is tired of his brother judging his mother's love life and his mother's judging his brother's and of everyone else being equally useless, so he takes matters into his own hands.





	in which Will Byers's Really, Really, Really Done with everyone's drama

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Halja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halja/gifts).



> For the end of the year prompts on tumblr, I got: _Hopper/Joyce + Stoncy. With Will not lost in another dimension or possessed for once, Joyce starts noticing all the romantic drama going on in Jonathan's life, gets him to explain a couple of things about his relationship with Nancy to her and comes to the conclusion that teens are still idiots and Stoncy is the only ship that makes sense... while Jonathan notices how oblivious and useless she and Hopper are around each other. They quietly judge each other's love life_. It... turned into Will being Done with both of them and making sure they stopped doing that. I'M SORRY IDEK WHAT THIS IS I HOPE IT'S HALFWAY DECENT.
> 
> That said, ST doesn't belong to me whatsoever or both ships would be canon and the title, for once, belongs to me and IT PROBABLY SHOWS because it sucks. Sorry guys. /o\

“Uh, Will?”

“Yes, Mom?”

Will understands something’s sort of wrong with his mother the moment she doesn’t immediately sit next to him nor tells him what it is that she wanted to talk about.

Which she _always_ does, and now she isn’t, and she’s looking at him as if she’s sort of regretting doing it, so he really does hope it’s not about the Upside Down - he _didn’t_ lie when he said he never saw it again, not after Bob died, not after they got rid of that thing inside him. Still. Now she’s biting down on her lip and she’s fretting with her hands, and just when he’s about to ask her himself lest he starts really worrying -

“This is probably - not appropriate that I’m asking you.”

“Mom, sometimes I hang out with -”

“That girl you danced with at the winter dance, but you don’t like her _that_ way, I know that. No, it’s - about your brother. And I feel bad asking _you_ , but I just want confirmation and I can’t ask _him_.”

“… _Jonathan_? Why can’t you?”

“Because - listen, I just, I noticed that he and Nancy are very happy together or so it seems, but whenever Steve’s around picking you guys up and they’re nearby, or Jon’s nearby, they _always_ look weird, and she looks guilty, and he looks at them like he’s happy for them but there’s some _problem_ and just, I can’t exactly ask Jonathan if both _he_ and Nancy would also like to be _with Steve Harrington_ on the side, can I?”

Six months ago, Will would have been _horrified_ at the prospect of talking about his brother’s sex life, or Mike’s sister’s sex life, or _Steve Harrington’s_ sex life with his _mother_ , but that was six months ago before he got possessed by an Upside Down monster and Steve sort of made friends with all of them and has some weird brotherly thing with Dustin going on (not that Will can resent Dustin for wanting that - he wouldn’t change Jonathan for the world and so what if those two did take on to each other, in that sense?) and people’s love lives suddenly became _not weird_ , not after what they went through.

Never mind that Mike gets the cake for _weirdest love life_ of all, but they’re not gonna touch that with a ten foot pole now.

“Uhm,” Will says, “I think you aren’t… completely wrong,” he finally says.

“… Wait, _I’m not_?”

He shrugs. “Dustin thinks Steve’s still into Nancy and Mike says Nancy feels guilty about dumping Steve like that, but Dustin’s also sure Steve’s into Jonathan, which I’m not real sure about but _he_ ’d know since he’s the one who talks to him more. I didn’t exactly go ask Jonathan because - dunno, he’d tell _me_ if he wanted, I think.” He _knows_ , but he doesn’t want his mother to feel like Jonathan wouldn’t go and tell _her_ , too. “He probably wants to figure it out. I guess. I mean, sounds like it’d be complicated to figure out.”

“Well, at least it’s not just me,” Mom says, sounding… well, utterly vindicated if anything. “It just makes sense. It’s the _only_ way it makes sense.”

“Maybe, but - you know Mike’s parents. No one knows Steve’s but I don’t know if they’d be okay with that. No one’s as cool as _you_ , Mom.”

She smiles and ruffles his hair, and then - then her smile turns outright devilish. “Well,” she says, “guess it’s time to make _Steve Harrington_ feel more welcomed around here.”

Will would like to tell her there’s literally no way to make sure of that lest she straight-up adopts him, given that she’s been _extremely_ welcoming to him after his stint making sure his friends didn’t die while trying to save Will’s hide _and_ after he got himself punched to Hell and back in her living room. But it’s probably useless, and he has a feeling she needs to distract herself from what happened to Bob as well, so she’s probably thinking _too much_ about Jonathan’s love life instead.

Which is fair. It could be worse.

“Sure thing,” he says. “No one’s complaining.”

She ruffles his hair again and he doesn’t even attempt to tell her he’s too old for that.

After this last year, he’s _never_ going to complain about any such thing again.

——

“Er, Will?”

Will looks up from his homework and meets his brother’s stare - why does Jonathan look as embarrassed as his mom did three days ago?

“Can I help you?” He asks, wondering _how_ he actually might.

“I just - I need an opinion.”

“Is that about what you should wear when you bring Nancy out tomorrow? Because Mike says -”

“No, it’s about Mom.”

… _what_.

“Okay. What’s the problem?” He hopes it’s not something awful that she hasn’t told him because she didn’t want to make him worry. He hopes -

“Do you think she and Hopper are having a thing?”

_What._

“Uh, sorry?”

“I mean, have you _seen_ them? Whenever they meet they’re either smoking together and reminiscing about their times in high school, or they pretend to not look at each other and that they’re just friends and _exchanging parenting tips_ or whatever, but - I think they have a thing. That they’re not acting on.”

Will considers it.

It’s not like he ever paid attention to it, but now that he considers the matter… well, fine, Jonathan _does_ have a point. They do look at each other longingly, and they do have ridiculous conversations where they basically imply that they want to date but for some reason they won’t or can’t or whatever. He figures it’s not wrong.

“I - I think you’re not seeing things,” Will finally says.

“Oh, _someone_ agrees with me, at least. Whatever. Should we tell her?”

“Wait, _we_ should?”

“I don’t know for which other reason she wouldn’t be acting on it. I mean, fine, maybe she’s not over what happened to Bob yet, but every time I tried to mention Hopper she’s _immediately_ gone on the defensive as if she _couldn’t_ for some reason and - maybe we should.”

Will, who has a feeling their mom would, in fact, reply with _so why don’t you and Nancy get over your teenage drama and kiss Steve Harrington_ , doesn’t know how good of an idea it is.

“Maybe we should, uh, give her some hints instead? I mean. Might work better than just, you know, telling her straight so she feels like we’re judging her or something.”

“Fair,” Jonathan says, “even if that level of pining kind of deserved judging, but never mind. You’re definitely the smartest person in the family, Will.”

Will Byers never was the type to brag, but given that Jonathan is, well, _not fessing up to Steve_ along with Nancy and therefore is being kind of a hypocrite in, uh, _judging their mother for doing the same_ , and that their mother thinks she can nudge those three together without realizing that she should probably nudge _herself_ first, he has a feeling that he actually might be the smartest person in the entire house.

And he’ll _definitely_ keep on being the smartest person in the room if he does _not_ get involved with this entire mess.

——

Except that after the situation is pointed out to him, next time Hopper drops by and _painfully_ tries to not flirt with his mother Will feels like cringing inside at how utterly pathetic it looks, and next time _Steve_ does and in between him, Jonathan and Nancy, Will can literally feel the awkwardness coming across them in waves and he _totally_ noticed Steve checking Jonathan out as they leave the house, he doesn’t know if he can _not_ get involved.

——

He asks Dustin if Steve actually does have a thing for Jonathan.

“Man, you kidding? He’s a goner. He just won’t ever tell them, I guess,” Dustin tells him. “Why?”

“Why wouldn’t he tell them?”

Dustin shrugs. “His parents are shit, Nancy’s are shit, he feels like she doesn’t want him anymore whatsoever and he doesn’t know if your brother’s into dudes, too. Why?”

Will groans out loud.

——

“Mike, can I talk to your girlfriend?” He asks the next time that they’re alone.

“Er,” Mike tells him, “that might be complicated. I mean, you can tune on the radio, but Hopper gets extra worried that she might go on overload and he wants her to not rely _too much_ on that for when she comes to school next year. So she’s not on there much anymore. But I’m going there three days for now. I can ask her in person.”

“Fair enough. I just need to know if _her father_ wants to be with _my_ mother.”

Mike gives him a fairly nonplussed stare. “If you ask _me_ , he’s wanted that since you disappeared if not before, but sure. I’ll ask her.”

“Thank you,” Will tells him gratefully.

A week later, Mike shows up at his house.

“So?” Will asks.

“She says she wouldn’t need mind reading to know that and she’s been telling him to go for it for months but he says _it’s complicated_.”

“And what does she think about _that_?”

“… That he’s being an idiot.”

… Well, at least his future possible-sister agrees with him, Will thinks, and at this point he might as well get adjusted to call her like that.

——

He considers telling both Jonathan and his mom.

Then he decides it’d be ridiculous since they _still_ come at him complaining about how much the other is being ridiculous.

So, next time Steve drives him somewhere, he just goes for it.

“Steve?”

“Yeah? Is there a problem?”

“My brother’s into you _and_ Nancy’s, too.”

Steve brakes so hard the car almost swerves out of the lane. “ _What_?”

“Mike says Nancy is inconsolable about how she treated you and she totally looks longingly at you and Jonathan _absolutely_ is into you and _my mom_ noticed it. Just go for it.”

“Will, it’s complic -”

“It’s not if you don’t want it to be. Please just do it and put me out of _that_ misery.”

Steve looks like he might argue, but then he shuts his mouth and doesn’t. Good.

——

The next day, Will walks into Hopper’s office.

“Will,” he says, “is there a problem -”

“Yes,” he cuts him short. “There is. As in, my mom likes you, you like my mom, Jon and I have no problems with that and your daughter _definitely_ does not, from what Mike tells me, so if you wanna make a move, just _do it_ and put me out of my misery before I have to listen to Jonathan complain about how the two of you are being utterly ridiculous, _again_.”

“Will -”

“That was about it,” Will says. “I’ve gotta meet the others now. Just think about it, okay?”

Then he runs out of Hopper’s office.

He did his job - now he just hopes they get their shit together.

——

“You know,” Dustin tells him a month later, “I think _you_ have something to do with those three actually, you know, getting over themselves.”

Will glances at his brother, Steve and Nancy eating at the same picnic table in the park while they should be watching _them_ and their friends (instead, Mike, Lucas and Max are planning their next D &D campaign and Will and Dustin are staring at those three idiots).

“Maybe,” Will says.

“ _Maybe_ my ass,” Mike interrupts, “he’s _definitely_ behind Hopper fessing up to Joyce. You don’t know how happy you made El, by the way. She says she’ll tell you everything about it when you’re in the same place.”

“Maybe,” Will concedes. “Then again, I couldn’t stand my brother and my mom judging each other anymore.”

“Well, I couldn’t stand Steve moping around anymore, so good thing you did,” Dustin declares. “Just be happy about it. When you meet someone you won’t be anywhere as dumb as your relatives.”

Probably, Will thinks, but seeing _them_ , seeing Mike and El and seeing all the drama that erupts _whenever_ anyone he knows gets into a relationship, he thinks he’s just going to stay single for the immediate future.

And possibly, the not-so immediate, as well.

 

 

End.


End file.
